God is saying to us that it is time for us to get higher in Him. How do we do it? We have to get deeper in the things of God, deeper in the Word, deeper in the Spirit, deeper in the understanding, deeper in love. For if you get deep in love, you will be able to overcome all that the devil is doing to you.
When I was still a sinner, I had a confrontation with this particular man. After I got saved, every time I would meet him I would start to tremble. I asked God one day, “My God, do You expect me to love this man? It is too difficult for me! Every time I see him my ears get hot. I just can’t love him!” God answered me, “Well, if you cannot love him, then at least have compassion on him.” Immediately, I began to see the wretchedness of the man. He was a wretched human being so poor and helpless that the demons had him for supper! I saw the demons eating him up and it hurt me. I was hating a piece of dirt! Yes, a piece of dirt! God also told me something that really shocked me. He said, “If you go against that man in your heart, you are killing him.” Have you ever thought of it? You have just one evil thought about someone and by this thought you are actually killing him? I saw how I was adding hate to this poor man and had to repent.
Let me explain to you what thinking evil thoughts mean in the spiritual realm. When you think evil about another person, you are actually sending out devils to him. One evil thought against the brother and the devils will obey you. This is something we need to understand. Also, Jesus said, “…the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63). The words that we speak are either life or death. If you have a child in your house and you keep on telling this child, “You are no good!” then the child will be no good. But, if you begin to encourage him, you will see a change for the better. When he does something rude or bad, you say, “The thing you are doing is of the evil! It is not of God. But you are a son of God and you must rise higher than that!” The child will begin to think about it and you will be surprised to see him doing his best.
Let me share with you another experience I had. I went to the store one day and asked a woman behind the counter whether they had the product I was looking for. She said something in reply, but I did not catch that she had said, “No!” So I asked her again, “Do you have so-and-so?” She got up and said very firmly, “Haven’t I told you that I don’t have any?” I was so hit by her response that immediately anger began to rise up within me. Then, God touched me and said, “Look at her.” When I did, my heart melted. The poor woman was under such pain and suffering! Instead of being mad with her, she wanted somebody to pray with her, to love her, to have mercy upon her. I went out and said, “Oh God! God Almighty, forgive me of my sins and have mercy upon her.” Sometimes we do not consider people being the creatures of God and also, being under pressure. However, we are here to set them free. We are here to let the living waters pour out of us and help them. We are not here to stand upon our “rights” and say, “This is my right! You are trampling upon my rights!”
You see, the problems between brethren that cause us to not like this one or that one, or what this one or that one is doing is disturbing us, are mostly created by the enemy and by our flesh. You may ask now: How do we overcome them? Let me give you one thought: God made the individual and God is able to overcome. God can stand this person, even when I can’t. God sees the condition of the person and He is able to create him into His likeness. I look to my Father, I can see where He took me from, what He did for me, how wretched, how brute-like I was and how He made me. And I say, “Well, Lord, this one is your child, too. I will never hurt him for he is your child. Forgive me and help me to work with it.” If he steps on me or if he kicks me, I want to forgive him, because the poor thing is God’s creature. Consider the other person to be your Father’s child, the one Jesus Christ died for, and think of Jesus sending you here to represent Him, to take His place to work and slave for him. Then, let him walk over you, let him rob you if he will, but you will still have compassion on him and love him.
